A fire chief today praised the people of Teesside for their response to heightened risks during the current strike.

And he revealed the number of emergency calls since the start of the eight-day walkout had plummeted since the walkout on Friday.

Ian Hayton, brigade executive director, said bosses had been carefully monitoring the pattern of calls during the dispute.

Around 60 to 70 calls are normally received by the brigade in 24 hours - with typically three house fires, five car fires and five rubbish fires.

But since yesterday noon until around 9am today the Joint Command Control Centre on Teesside has received just over 30 calls - just one derelict house fire and five hoax calls.

Mr Hayton said: "It is a tribute to the people of Teesside they are heeding the message and responding to our safety advice.

"And commercially, there has not been one incident in Wilton or North Tees sites. We have had calls from people who reported a rubbish fire in the back garden and said: 'It's OK, you don't have to come, we're dealing with it.'

"And while we still want people to ring 999 as usual and certainly never to put themselves at risk, it does show a change of attitude."

And he praised the military's expertise during the blaze at Oscar's in Stockton.

"They did extremely well. They now know what it is to stand on the end of a hose for five hours - something they won't get from training. As they get more exposure they will get more confident."

He said heightened safety awareness among Teessiders was the direction the brigade was moving to. "We want to move towards prevention of fires across our region. Every home should have at least two smoke alarms and every home should have an escape drill. If you have children and elderly in the home this is even more important. Think safety, think prevention."

But he stressed: "The number of hoax calls has gone up. Youngsters seem to think it is a novelty to see military fire engines on the streets."